Rhonda immediately felt the urge to leave. Ever since they were teenagers, she and Kelly hadn’t gotten along. They were only two years apart, but had personalities like night and day. Kelly had gotten good grades and gone on to attend Spelman College before landing a job at a marketing firm downtown. She looked down her nose at Rhonda for the choices she had made in her life and made it a point to publicize it.

“I see you got the children with you.” Bernadine smiled down at the trio. P.J. said “hi,” and Pooh waved, but Alisha just scowled. “You ain’t speaking today?” Bernadine asked Alisha.

“I said hi,” Alisha said dryly.

“Umm-hmm,” Ms. Lulu grumbled, staring at the child. She wanted to hop up from her chair and slap the shit out of the grown child, but she knew she couldn’t blame her too much. Children only knew what they learned from their parents, and Rhonda had been the same at that age.

Trying to save face, Rhonda grabbed Alisha by the arm and shook her. “You better respect your elders, do you understand me?” The preteen nodded, but the anger in her face was apparent.

A young man dressed in a lavender Polo shirt and denim shorts came walking out of the building. The sun danced off his waved-up black hair and bronze skin. A gold pinky ring adorned his left hand. The piece wasn’t gaudy, but tasteful. Pushing his blacked-out Prada sunglasses up on his nose, he gave the ladies on the stoop a radiant smile.

“Hey, Kelvin.” Ms. Lulu touched his tattooed arm.

“Hey, ma. How you doing?” Kelvin replied in an almost musical voice.

“Where’s that nice car of yours?” Bernadine asked.

“I had to get it serviced. I’m riding with a friend today.” As if on cue, another young man came walking out of the building. He was about nineteen if he was a day, with cherrywood skin and shiny black curls. He smiled at the women on the stoop and walked out to the curb.

“You ain’t speaking today?” Kelvin asked Rhonda.

“What up,” she said, very unenthused about seeing him. Kelvin was Rhonda’s younger brother and Kelly’s twin. For the most part, he and Rhonda got along, or at least better than she did with Kelly. She had asked herself time and again where they went wrong with him. She loved her little brother, but didn’t agree with his lifestyle. Now, Kelvin was a real street cat; she had even heard that he had a little spot on the Hill. Cats respected him in the hood, no matter what his “tastes” were.

“Uncle Kel, let me get a dollar.” Alisha put one hand on her hip and extended the other one in anticipation.